Thanks to the development of the science, apparatus and equipment, a significant importance of medicinal plants has been proved. Due to this, the increase of medicinal and aromatic plant application for human treatment has been registered lately, in the world and in our country.

Cultivated and wild medicinal plants are attacked and damaged by a large number of different pests. Among them, the insects belonging to the group of leaf miners take an important place. They slow down and even stop the growth and development of the attacked plants in the same way like other pests do, and often cause their decay. In that way, a considerable decrease of quantity and quality of yield occurs.

So far (1993/1999), material from numerous localities of the following regions has been collected and scientifically processed: Vranje, Čačak, Zrenjanin, Bela Crkva, Subotica, Sremska Mitrovica, Vrnjačka Banja, Banja Koviljača, Studenica, Smederevo, Grocka, Obrenovac, Smederevska Palanka, Novi Sad, Vršac and Belgrade. 1124 localities from the region of Belgrade were included in the research. The material of leaf miners was collected and processed according to the usual methods for this group of insects. During the collecting and registering, the intensity of the occurrence of each species was estimated (using the scale from 1-5), and population dynamics and manifested harmfulness were also registered in the species with higher population density.

So far 194 medicinal plants from 54 families and 125 genera have been included in the study.

228 species of leaf miners from four orders, 22 families and 62 genera were registered on these medicinal plants. Most of the registered species of leaf miners belonged to the order Lepidoptera (152 species, or 66.67%). One third of the registered species (33.33%), belonged to the three remaining orders: the most of all Diptera (53 species, or 23.24%), Coleoptera (13 species, or 5.70%), and then Hymenoptera (10 species, or 4.39%). The genera with the most numerous orders were: Stigmella (37 species), Phyllonorycter (28), Nepticula (16) and Coleophora (16 species).

The most of the species proved in this study has been registered for the first time in the entomofauna of Serbia.